THE INTELLECTUALIST CRITERION 151 



cal in the most overt sense of that term. We 

 may, if we choose, regard the object in which the 

 idea terminates through its use in guiding action, 

 as the criterion; but if we so choose, it is at our 

 peril that we forget that this object serves as 

 criterion in its capacity of fulfilment and not as 

 sheer objective existence. 



4. Difficulties overlap ; problems recur which re 

 semble each other in the kind of treatment they 

 demand for solution. Various modes of activity 

 with their respective ends, going on at some time 

 more or less independently, get organized into 

 single comprehensive systems of behavior. The so 

 lution of one problem is found to create difficulties 

 elsewhere; or the truth that is made in the solu 

 tion of one problem is found to afford an effective 

 method of dealing with questions arising appar 

 ently from unallied sources. Thus certain tested 

 ideas in performing a constant or recurrent func 

 tion secure a certain permanent status. The pro 

 spective use of such truths, the satisfaction that 

 we anticipate in their employ, the assurance of 

 control that we feel in their possession, becomes 

 relatively much more important than the circum 

 stances under which they were first made true. In 

 becoming permanent resources, such tested ideas 

 get a generalized energy of position. They are 

 truths in general, truths &quot; in themselves &quot; or in the 

 abstract, truths to which positive value is assigned 



